“The owner of the winning horse is traditionally invited to give a speech at the annual Gimcrack Dinner, which is held at the racecourse in December.
After this trophy race, the presentation was neither held at once nor at the grandstand but had to appoint another ‘chosen’ date and another ‘chosen’ venue other than the racecourse.

P & O had six luxury liners as possible locations of the award though it could fix neither the booking of which ship, nor the setting of which day immediately. It had to depend on their schedule of arriving in Hong Kong. That was the era when aerial transportation was not well-developed as nowadays so cruising was the most noble means of travel enjoyment. Therefore, a lunch on board could be a dream for many people. The P & O Cup chosen to be presented there was to pursuit the kind of atmosphere unavailable by the grandstand. The procedures were a lunch first, and then a triumphant speech about Hong Kong racing by the winning owners before an award ceremony. Those were all in accordance with the British classic, Gimcrack Stakes. The owner of the winning horse is traditionally invited to give a speech before the meal which only take place on the ground. Its arrangement of venue could be a difference from the P & O Cup.

However, such a ritual of P & O Cup might scare off the participation of Chinese winning horses as their owners could be afraid of public speaking or worry about their fluency of English speaking. In addition to the appropriateness of topic, all those mentioned factors could make those owners prefer not to win instead. Some of them made their entry then their withdrawal eventually or just hoping for a defeat to avoid the embarrassment of addressing an awkward speech in the presentation.

By that time, quite a number of Chinese owners won the trophy but none of them made the speech in Cantonese or Mandarin then being translated into English. During that era, the competence to speak English was part of the symbol of social status. So there had been one or two owners willing to undergo a cram in English before the ceremonial speech. These could be the humorous memories of the P & O Cup races.”